Since tendon elasticity declines with age, what can be done to preserve it? More to the point, having had a tendon yanked right off the patella, how do I train to prevent this happening again?
That a good question. It is clear that tendon elasticity declines with age much faster than muscular strength does.
So what to do? Is the solution to limit the elastic stress for masters athlete or can any particular therapy help?
I’ll start. Therapy is always the starting point because there is no downside. Second is limiting the overall exposure to elastic work in particular and running volume in general, relying more on overall weights and cals to make up for any training shortfall.
Third is to moderate the variablity of the training to prevent adaptation shock.
Thoughts??
How did you injure your patella?
By walking off a step I didn’t see while walking full speed. It was very cold out which probably was a factor.
What (training) age are we talking about?
My observations have been that the guys that were fast and stayed fast as they got older seemed to be the ones that kept at it. That is, some variation on “use it or lose it.” So I’m not sure how limiting exposure plays into this. Seems to me that it is important to keep demanding elasticity in your training. On the other hand, I understand the need to match training loads to individual athlete. After all, you can’t continue to “use it” if you are injured!
Staying at it doesn’t imply staying with the volume used when you were at your physical peak- just a continued exposure to some portion of that original volume.
Once the tendon is all the way recovered I was wondering if I should do more jumping and stuff to teach my reflexes how to land and keep my tendon from getting too rigid from slow- movement-only work. I am improving my slow speed flexibilty but the quick jolt is what got me and it isn’t likely I can avoid slipping/falling for the rest of my life, especially in an icy Boston winter.
I was also wondering if there are any foods/supps that have been shown to keep things limber?
I’m just starting on this phase of rehab so as you can see I don’t know much yet.
Do you think centering your rehab around preventing a freak injury is best way to go about things?
I don’t think many of us are selectively strengthening are PCL’s because that is the most common ligament to be damaged in a car accident. If you catch my drift.
So from a practical standpoint, how does this play out? I understand that there will be individual differences between athletes, but for example should an older athlete reduce or even drop plyometrics and just do sprinting and lifting?
In some ways, reducing the volume of elastic work can be seen as treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem. While I understand that age-related declines are ultimately unavoidable, does anyone know of any exercises, protocols or supplements that can positively impact tendon elasticity. Either reversing or slowing the process?
I don’t think strengthening our PCLs . . .
Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. It wasn’t a freak accident. It happened because I
A) was too heavy, thus putting more weight on the leg
B) reacted badly, jamming my foot towards the ground when I lost
C) balance, which I need to improve,
D) and reacted badly yet again, not yielding when my foot hit the ground, but exerting force to stabilize myself when the tendon went pop!
I’m not centering my rehab around it but I think fast-motion flexibility will help, since I’m not getting any younger and another fall, far from being a car accident scenario, is quite likely, especially in winter as I stated.